Any respectable game developer should want to make absolutely sure things are ready for a live server by public testing. How many times have we had game breaking and major bugs/exploits/glitches make it to the live server? What's that quote about doing the same thing time and time again, yet expecting different results? Yea...
This game has always been an odd one though, they appear to be on a strict deadline for development and release based on predetermined timelines, not when its ready but in time for the show. All done on an a shrunk down dev team.Originally Posted by Mathuu
Defiance Data the community resource site, Databases, Tools, Guides and News
Exactly.. and all the more reason to have a live test server weeks before a build goes in world. What better way to find the bugs than having people poke and test for them in a live environment WEEKS beforehand to avoid the problems? Free Labor anyone?
Understandable, to an extent, but a daily build at the end of the work day with all "completed" features and fixes on a test server and reviewing overnight bug reports from said server in the A.M...
Even if it's only 5 bored players checking it out, they would have known about this issue with the synergies the second they put the daily on. Maybe common sense isn't part of the mission statement.
Don't get me wrong. Love the game, I don't see what most people fuss about with the difficulties, scaling, etc. I'm newish and didn't play Old Defiance, so I don't have a comparison, but my view on this subject comes from years upon years of gaming. It's more of a based on past experience thing.
Sorry about that, the test server is a bust hasn't be updated since 4/3/14, they have the tools but don't use them and become tools for that reason. What a Shame
Ihave read these posts for a long time now i played beta I have a clan that has over 400 active players. when the game first came out i saw on sy-fy amanda trapping do an interview on show and game she said that there view for the future was like stargate many seasons . that has always stuck in the back of my mind. i think thats why there drawing thing out.if you have a partner with the bigger interest thats not really into playing but realizes the posabilitys but has a say in calling the shots .your the gamer and say we need this . the bigger part says make do with what you got . and by the way dont let it go public. then you have us .why dont they do what makes sence. they cant tell us were not in the boardroom . just a thought.
Defiance does have a Public Test Server and we have used it in the past to test upcoming content and preempt issues before they hit live. For Patch 2.0, we simply didn't have sufficient development time before needing to ship the build for certification and then turn it around and release it onto the live servers. (Phantasie can and will go into more depth on this in a future post.)
Producing a PTS build is also bandwidth-intensive and would have pushed back our schedule, potentially making us miss the start of Season Two on Syfy. External testers definitely help discover bugs and we always prefer to give patches time on PTS to get poked and prodded by players. That said, our internal QA Team has ferreted out dozens of gameplay-affecting issues, preventing our players from ever having to experience them.
Ideally, we'll always put our patches through the public crucible of PTS. Realistically, we won't always have the time to make it happen.
"Nothing reveals humanity so well as the games it plays."
So producing a POS build is less bandwith-intensive, and wouldn't push back your schedule, potentially making you miss the start of Season Two on Syfy.
How were you not ready for this release 3 to 5 months BEFORE the new season went live? I'm sure glad my company doesn't partner with Trion.
I understand the time delays with the shifting of personnel at Trion, however, YOU still have a game to put out there. That's no easy tasking.
This patch was ready to go when exactly? Your talking a one week (or even two weeks just to be generous) run on a PTS to have players find the bugs and report them so that they can be fixed. Sure, between Internal and External testers, your probably NOT going to find every little bug and glitch.. but you'll definitely find the game breakers and ones that have things not working as expected. Better to fix it THERE, than have the game itself down for a whole day basically and a pissed off group of players.
That being said, I still say your doing better than the community team we had back before DLC 2 went live, and this PTS issue is something I've been adament about pushing for since before the game even went to Beta. It's something that's needed, even if it's only a week or two. I'm glad you feel (my impression) that I'm correct in this, and I look forward to my email saying "Hey, you want to test, we'll have the test server open on XYZ, and you can download it in advance here..."
So live servers are the PTS then? well more of the same i suppose, so much for a new leaf for F2P.
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